Gegory Freeman: As Economy Sputters, GOP Filibuster On Jobs Creation Reeks Of Hypocrisy. P-D 4/6/1993

Headline: AS ECONOMY SPUTTERS, GOP FILIBUSTER ON JOBS CREATION REEKS OF HYPOCRISY
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Tues., Apr. 6, 1993
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 1B, Edition: FIVE STAR

THE REPUBLICANS in the U.S. Senate are flexing their muscles these days - and a great deal of that flexing is at the expense of us, the American people.
The filibuster against the spending part of President Bill Clinton's economic program - the job creation part - could not have come at a worse time. With an economy that seems to be sputtering along, an unemployment rate for March stuck at 7 percent and a net loss of 22,000 jobs, Senate Republicans seem to be getting some sort of perverse pleasure out of watching Americans twist in the wind.
The current unemployment rate is higher than it was at the worst of the recession, and nearly 9 million Americans are out of work today, about 5 percent more than were a year ago.

In many ways, then, creating jobs is even more important than reducing the budget deficit. Through it all, 43 Republican senators have chosen to sit on the bill because, they say, they must draw the line on deficit spending.
   Come on. Whom are we kidding here?
   Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I believe it was the Republicans - led by Ronald Reagan in 1981 - who brought this crushing deficit to us in the first place.
   Twelve years after the "Reagan Revolution" began, the deficit has ballooned to $332 billion, nearly four times what it was in 1981, when Reagan took office. Republicans voted for deficit budgets on a regular basis over the 12 years that they held the White House, and the deficit soared to new heights with a surge in defense spending. For Republican senators to now say that they are blocking the president's package because they are concerned about the deficit reeks of hypocrisy.

Much of what is going on in Washington, in fact, is a battle for power. Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole signaled the beginning of this new battle with veiled threats even before Clinton moved into the White House, and Dole is making good on those threats now. By holding the economic package hostage, Dole and his GOP colleagues are playing a game of "King of the Hill." The sad part, though, is that they are doing it at the expense of millions of people.
The Republicans are also complaining about pork in the economic package, but a close examination of the president's $16 billion proposal shows that most of the money would go to unemployment benefits, summer jobs for youths, programs like childhood immunization and Head Start and handling long-neglected infrastructure needs such as worn sewers, underfunded public transit and neglected roads.
These programs are hardly pork. Not only are they necessary to try to get this country on an even keel once again, they're also aimed at making sure that the country doesn't once again sink into recession.

As every poll for the last year has made clear, the primary concern of most Americans is the economy. People are most concerned about jobs, the creation of them and the retention of them. It was that concern, probably more than any other, that put Clinton in the White House.
   But the Republican senators seem oblivious to this. While most of them would have voted for the same package had it been proposed last year by George Bush, they have chosen to allow partisanship to cloud their thinking.
   The American public deserves better than this. The partisan politics being played by the GOP right now is playing with lives.
   The Republicans will have plenty of opportunities over the next four years to flex their muscles with the Democrats. But to block a proposal designed to improve our faltering economy simply to demonstrate that the GOP is a party to be reckoned with flies in the face of what we sent our representatives to Washington to do in the first place.

There is much to be done in Washington. There are serious issues to be dealt with, topics like military spending, Social Security and Medicare, the health care system, energy taxes and many more. The gridlock being foisted upon us by the GOP is doing nothing to tackle our pressing problems. It is only prolonging the pain.
Let's hope that a quick resolution of this economic issue can be reached shortly and the president's economic package can get moving. America is hurting. It's time for the doctors to stop fighting over the medicine and write the prescription.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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